Quick Email Templates

Create some templates:

• Create a new email, fill out what you want to be in the template.
• File menu, Save As…, Save As Type: Outlook Template (*.oft)
• The folder will automatically change to your standard template folder, which is: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\TemplatesType a filename and save here.

Now, Microsoft’s “Official” method for using a template is this: File -> New -> Choose Form… -> Look In: User Templates in File System -> Choose File -> Open. Do that every time you want to use the template.

To make it easier, we can create a menu with shortcuts:

Create the menu:

• Go back to the main Outlook window, View menu, Toolbars, Customize…
• From the Categories: list, select New Menu.
• From the Commands list, drag New Menu to the menu bar.
• Right-click on your new menu and change the name. Advanced: when entering the name, use & to specify a hot key. e.g. Te&mplates will appear as Templates and ALT+M will be a shortcut to open the menu.

Add templates to the menu:

• If the Customize window is not still open, open it again: View menu, Toolbars, Customize…
• Browse the categories for a menu item that has a nice icon… It does not matter what that item does, nor what the name is: we will change that. I suggest File -> New Message or Actions -> Forward. Drag it to your new menu.
• Open your menu and right-click the item, Assign Hyperlink, Open…
• Browse to find the template file you created earlier.
• Right-click your item again, change the name to something more descriptive.Again, you can use the & symbol to create a hot-key: e.g. such that ALT+M, T in Outlook will send a simple test email to the client.
• Close the Customize window and you’re done!